THE RUNDOWN (2003)  **1/2

Reviewed 9/25/03

THE RUNDOWN has all the elements to make a great action movie, but it never quite gels because director Peter Berg (VERY BAD THINGS and lead actor of THE LAST SEDUCTION) goes on autopilot whenever he isn’t filming an action scene... except for the carefully built-up opening sequence, which gets my vote for best scene in the movie.  WWE wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is playing Beck, an unusual action hero, a mild-mannered, almost nice guy.  He's not your typical macho badass.  The movie begins with him being sent to a nightclub to recover a gambling debt from a pro football quarterback.  After every attempt to settle it cordially, Beck calls his boss to say if he could do this another night because the entire offensive frontline is there to back up the guy.  It’s not because he’s intimidated, but they’ve got a good team this year and he doesn’t want to injure them.  Boss says no.  Beck kicks the entire front line’s collective asses.

Beck wants to retire and open a restaurant, so he goes on one final bounty hunt to retrieve Travis (Seann William Scott), the son of his boss and a so-called treasure hunter whose gotten into trouble in the jungles of Brazil.  With shades of MIDNIGHT RUN, Beck and Travis become a bickering odd couple with Travis constantly trying to escape.  Beautiful Rosario Dawson is barmaid, Mariana, a female lead who for once is nobody’s love interest.  Christopher Walken does his weirdo villain act again (with diminishing returns), this time as Hatcher, an exploiter of Brazilian laborers.

Beck and Travis’ relationship never quite cements the way Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin’s did in MIDNIGHT RUN.   Part of it is because The Rock and Scott are not De Niro and Grodin, but it’s also because Berg seems not to care.  Instead of establishing any real connection between them, we get failed jokes about monkeys in heat.  Scott particularly never rises above slightly amusing but remains always annoying in sidekick status.   The action is impressive though.  Aside from the opening fight, there’s Beck’s encounter with Hatcher’s men in Mariana’s bar and a battle between Walker and some jungle rebels who use what Travis calls “Tarzan jujitsu.”